Daniele De Rossi lost his temper on the touchline with Leandro Paredes and Romelu Lukaku during Roma’s 4-0 victory. ‘That was truly stupid.’
It was a third consecutive victory for the new coach, as after Verona and Salernitana, they hammered Cagliari at the Stadio Olimpico.
In theory, it was the ideal evening for the Giallorossi, but their coach was furious on the touchline.
There was already an incident in the early stages when Lukaku squared up to defender Yerry Mina, going forehead to forehead until they were separated by the referee.
“Think, we are leading the game, there’s no need to react,” shouted De Rossi at his striker.
Nicola Zalewski was barged over by Mina in the second half and as he was down on the ground, the referee having waved play on, Nahitan Nandez tried to physically drag the Roma player back to his feet.
This sparked a scuffle, resulting in yellow cards for Nandez and Paredes, much to the rage of the coach, who started kicking and throwing water bottles.
“Look, I like it when players try to defend their teammates, but when leading 4-0 they need to be intelligent,” explained De Rossi in his press conference.
“We need to clamp down on this sort of behaviour, because getting booked when you are 4-0 up is truly stupid. We cannot afford to lose any of these players.”
To make matters worse, Paredes was making his comeback after sitting out a Serie A ban due to the accumulation of yellow cards.
The Argentina international has a very poor disciplinary record, receiving 12 bookings in 29 competitive games this season, 11 of them in just 21 Serie A matches.
The row continued afterwards between Paredes and Mina, who exchanged a few choice words – and rude gestures that required no translation.
After the telling off, De Rossi was eager to praise Paredes and urged him to calm this career-long weakness in his character.
“There are few midfielders with his quality in the world. But he has to improve his positioning, finding himself in the path of the ball.
“He needs to listen to me, because I used to do that well. Without having to run like someone who has four lungs, he can be more decisive when defending.”
PAREDES 🆚 MINA 🔥🔥
Luego de un fuerte choque en una situación de juego, Yerry Mina le dijó "hijo de p***" a Leo Paredes y el argentino respondió con una sonrisa y un gestito pic.twitter.com/ldTLuxbSHF
— Diario Olé (@DiarioOle) February 5, 2024
Same old Rometta , still petulant like their hero Mourinho!